Electrical arrangements or processing means for the performance of any automated operation using empirical data in electronic form for classifying, analyzing, monitoring, or carrying out calculations on the data to produce a result or event.

Details not covered by groups G06F 3/00-G06F 13/00 and G06F 21/00.

Generation and/or distribution of clock signal(s) within a computer system.

Distribution of clock signal(s) within a computer system, in a typical case the goal to be achieved is to minimize the skew.

Clock distribution wherein the clock signal(s) are distributed entirely optically or partially optically and partially electrically.

Used also for hoods protecting displays of portable computers.

Used also for accessories attached on displays of portable computers.

Portable computers in the sense of computers able to be used as stand alone computers with their own integrated user interface and designed to be carried by hand (e.g. hand held computers or laptop computers) or worn on the user's body (wearable computers).

Docking stations and extensions associated with the portable computers which may be mechanically attached to them.

Telephone sets including user guidance or feature selection means facilitating their use: H04M 1/247

Cordless telephones: H04M 1/725

Pagers: G08B 5/222

In this field, main mechanical aspects of the housing (single housing, foldable or sliding housings) are classified in G06F 1/1615 - G06F 1/1626, while all the other constructional details (enclosure details, display, keyboard, integrated peripherals, etc) are classified in G06F 1/1633 in complement to this main aspect.

Portable computers having a plurality of enclosures which can't be classified in anyone of the subgroups, e.g. multiple enclosure with loose mechanical link (single wire, expandable or/and flexible link, rollable part), computer split in several housings with no mechanical connection and wirelessly connected, complex mechanical link with multiple degrees of freedom.

Illustrative examples:

Also when the hinging part is composed of two parallel rotation axes.

Reversing the orientation done either by rotating along the X or Y axis or by detaching the display and attaching it in the reverse orientation. Illustrative example:

Illustrative examples of subject matter classified in this group:

Additionally rotation around an axis common to the plane they define but perpendicular to their common side, e.g. reversing the relative orientation along an axis common to both planes but not along their sides (which would be then a folding axis).

Portable computers linked by a mechanism allowing translation of one housing relatively to the other housing.

Also bags allowing the transport of other peripherals together with the portable computer and carrying trolleys for transporting portable computers.

Expansions which are directly attached to portable computers, including supplementary battery packs external to the housing, port replicators and cradles for PDAs.

Should be used when the displays are used in combination as a virtual single display area where the displayed image is split over the display screens.

Typically very small displays disposed on the back of the main display for indicating time, alerts or battery level or small status displays near the hinge above the keyboard. Illustrative examples:

Also optical transmission of data or inductive transmission of power between housings.

Secondary touchscreens which are used only as input device (touchpad, virtual input devices), and not for information display.

Scanners for e.g. A4 sheets.

Cases and housing for computers and how computer components are "packed" , i.e. mounted within the housing . It also covers arrangements, e.g. cabling, to distribute the power generated by the power supply unit to the other computer components mounted within the casing.

Enclosures for computers, including constructional details of front or bezel.

Enclosures for non-standard computers, e.g. industrial computers, computers specifically adapted to special environments.

Mounting structures for securing and/or interconnecting among them internal components within the enclosure of a computer system.

Used for the securing of expansion cards completely within the enclosure, and not to the connection to openings in the enclosure.

Used for to the connection of expansion boards to openings in the enclosure so that at least a portion, or connector, of the expansion board is accessible from outside the enclosure.

Used for both optical drives and hard disk drives.

This groups refers also to documents wherein the thermal management is achieved by lowering power consumption in order to reduce heat generation..

Documents also disclosing costructional details about the managed cooling arrangement should be also classified in G06F 1/20 if describing the cooling of a desktop computer or G06F 1/203 if describing the cooling of a portable computer.

Power supplies for computers including:

Arrangements with switchable, multiple power supplies (typical example is AC and battery, but may also include multiple batteries, fuel cells or solar panels).

Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals, either directly from the computer or under computer control (typical cases are the supply of power through a USB interface and the power strips).

Arrangements to monitor, and only monitoring, power supply parameters (e.g. voltage and/or current).

Means to save power in computers, including devices, methods and combinations of devices and method features.

Power saving obtained by switching, in relation to events of any type, between computing device operating modalities implying different power consumption levels. As opposed to power saving arrangements and/or methods of a permanent or continuous nature.

Power saving triggered by a certain event and/or condition detected by monitoring or supervision of e.g. hardware, communication, processing tasks.

Used when the peripheral monitored does not belong to any of the subgroups: G06F 1/3218, G06F 1/3221 or G06F 1/3225.

Power saving initiated when a task completion is detected (typical cases are the completion of processing tasks, e.g. programs, applications, routines).

Power saving initiated when the user absence/presence is detected, e.g. through a camera and/or sensors.

This group is not to be used when the user absence/presence is inferred by a user inactivity period, e.g. absence of keyboard input. Subgroups referring to monitoring of peripheral devices to be used in such cases, i.e. G06F 1/3215 and subgroups.

Power saving obtained by selectively reducing power consumption of all or individual components of a computing system. Such reduction can be achieved in different ways, e.g. by lowering the clock frequency, by stopping the supply of the clock signal, by lowering the voltage, by stopping the supply of power, by task scheduling.

Power saving by stopping clock generation or distribution to a computer or a component.

Power saving taking place in the processing unit of the computer, intended as central processing unit (CPU), microcontroller unit (MCU), microprocessor.

Power saving in optical (or magneto-optical) disk drives, e.g. CD, DVD, Blue-Ray, etc.

Power saving by selectively reducing power consumption of individual components of a computer system. Such reduction can be achieved in different ways, e.g. by lowering the clock frequency or stopping the clock, by lowering the voltage, by stopping the power supply (power gating).

Includes inter alia arrangements in which a barcode reader is used to input data to a computer and in particular drivers for barcode or QR code readers.

Recognition of data; presentation of data; record carriers; handling record carriers: G06K.

Specific arrangements for input through a video camera, not covered by G06F 3/01 - G06F 3/16, e.g. details of the interface linking the camera to the computer.

This group was originally meant for devices adapting analog video cameras to computer entry.

Old technology, not used anymore.

Input arrangements, or combined input and output arrangements, for interaction between user and computer.

Particularly, said input arrangements include those based on the interaction with the human body, e.g.

Diagnosis; surgery; identification: A61B

Recognition of data; presentation of data; record carriers; handling record carriers: G06K

For the scope of this group, Head-tracking is interpreted as covering face detection and tracking.

Also covers hand-worn keyboards

Manipulators; chambers provided with manipulation devices: B25J

Dynamic force or tactile feedback arrangements. Also passive feedback arrangements but only if they are dynamically reconfigurable under computer control, e.g. buttons raised from a touchpad surface using electronic muscle or similar.

Gesture interaction as a sequence and/ or a combination of user movements captured using various sensing techniques such as (among others) cameras monitoring the user, arrangements for interaction with the human body, input by means of a device moved freely in 3D space or opto-electronic detection arrangements.

Handling natural language data: G06F 40/00

Input arrangements using manually operated switches, e.g. using keyboards or dials, insofar as they are stand-alone devices or integrated in a fixed computer system. Includes wired or wireless keyboards which are not mechanically linked to a portable computer.

Any keyboard designed or modified to control a specific software application or specific hardware, e.g. by integrating dedicated keys. Key layouts in alternative to the QWERTY standard are also classified in this group.

Input arrangements using manually operated switches, e.g. using keyboards or dials, further comprising cooperation and interconnection of the input arrangement with other functional units of a computer.

Keyboard interfaces and drivers; peripherals emulating a keyboard (e.g. producing "keystroke input" signals); devices providing additional buttons or foot operated switches and connected between keyboard and PC.

Also comprises KVM switches.

Constructional details related to the wireless link, e.g. position of the IR transmitter/receiver as well as protocol details for the wireless transmission of keyboard codes.

Character input using a reduced number of keys, e.g. with respect to the alphabet, i.e. multivalued keys. Covers character input methods wherein a character is entered by tracing it on a matrix of switches (keys). Covers character input methods where a character is entered as a sequence of strokes on different keys or on a same key.

Keyboards or keypads having keys that can be operated not only vertically but also laterally to actuated separate switches associated to different key codes.

Chord keyboards even if they are split in two or more parts, i.e. the predominant feature is the fact that chording is required to enter a character.

Character input using retrieval techniques from a database or dictionary based on previously inputted characters, e.g. for predicting and proposing word completion alternatives.

Covers inter alia T9, iTap and similar techniques.

Any keyboard in which the function assigned to all or some of the keys can be reprogrammed, e.g. changing alphabetical keys according to language, programming dedicated function keys.

This group is used only for "exotic" input devices corresponding to the wording of the definition and not fitting in any of the subgroups, for example arrangements detecting the position or the displacement of tangible user interfaces comprising RFIDs tags or bar codes interacting with a surface (such as chessboard-like surface) where the position detection technique is not covered by any of the subgroups of G06F 3/03.

Example:

If the moving part is the sensor then the subject-matter belongs to G06F 3/0304, if the observed target (e.g. finger) is moving then the subject-matter belongs to G06F 3/042.

Tracking relative movement in co-operation with a regularly or irregularly patterned surface, e.g. arrangements for detecting relative movement of an optical mouse with respect to a generic surface optically detected as irregularly patterned (table, desk top, ordinary mouse pad) or with respect to a surface (e.g. mouse pad) encoded with an optically detectable regular pattern.

Arrangements for detecting absolute position of a member with respect to a regularly patterned surface, e.g. pen optically detecting position-indicative tags printed on a paper sheet.

For finger worn pointing devices covered by this group and its subgroups add the Indexing Code G06F 2203/0331.

Devices sensing their own position or orientation in a three dimensional space, allowing thereby the user to input up to 6 coordinates (position + orientation) by moving the device. Covers inter alia 3D mice.

Remote control based on movements G08C.

Pens detecting the presence of light on one point (such as a CRT scanning beam).

Light emitting pens positioned in contact or proximity of the pointed position.

Specific Indexing Codes G06F 2203/0332 - G06F 2203/0337 are associated to this group for some constructional details.

Pens other than optically sensing pens or light pens (e.g. for use in combination with a digitiser). Constructional details of pens in general irrespectively of the interaction technology.

Pens used for handwriting recognition:G06V 30/1423, G06V 10/12.

Touch surface for sensing the relative motion of a finger over the surface.

Specific Indexing Codes G06F 2203/0338 and G06F 2203/0339 are associated to this group for some constructional details.

Tracking a projected light spot generated by a light pen or a "laser pointer" indicating a position on a display surface, drivers for light pen systems.

For example:

Position sensing of movable objects such as fingers or pens in contact with a surface or within a relative small distance to this surface (hovering).

In this area, Indexing Codes G06F 2203/04101 - G06F 2203/04114 dealing with details which may be related to different sensing technologies are used in parallel to the classification scheme.

Subgroups G06F 3/0412 and G06F 3/0416 -G06F 3/04186 are not explicit to a specific sensing technology but describe details about the integration within a display or the driving/interface of the digitiser.

For documents belonging to these subgroups, if further relevant details related to the sensing technology are disclosed, the corresponding subgroup of G06F 3/041 that is best related to the sensing technology employed should be doubly allocated as invention information.

If the sensing technology is indicated only with minor details, the sensing technology (if any) should be indicated as additional information.

Structural details and methods of driving a combination of displays with digitisers that share at least one constitutive part of both the touch sensing technology as well as the display technology (e.g. a common electrode for LCD control and a touch electrode (i.e. driving or sensing) for capacitive touch sensing, a common electrode being used as a guard/shield electrode in touch sensing, or a common electrode that is specifically floated during a touch driving/sensing period).

Examples:

Structural details and methods of driving a display and a digitizer in which the digitizer is either wholly or in part within the structural confines that make up the display panel of the display device (e.g., a sensor pixel that is adjacent to the display pixel) or the sensor is arranged to utilize at least one structural component of the display panel (e.g. such as the top substrate of the display pane).

Examples:

Documents disclosing both a specific display panel (LCD, OLED etc.) and touch sensing are doubly classified in the relevant areas (for example: G02F for LCD, H01L for OLEDs, and G09G for methods of driving displays), pertaining to the respective types of display panels as well as in G06F 3/0412.

Devices in which a component is shared between touch detection circuitry and display driving circuitry, for example, a shared electrode for touch detection and display driving wherein the details of both the touch detection and the display driving are disclosed should be classified in the relevant areas either G09G (depending upon the type of display device) as well as in G06F 3/0412.

Devices in which construction details of both LCD panel and touch components are disclosed, but touch detection is only nominally disclosed should be classified only in G02F 1/13338 and only classified in G06F 3/0412 as an Additional.

Construction details of OLED display components integrated with touch detection components wherein the disclosure primarily concerns the OLED and minimally recites touch circuitry is classified in H10K 59/40 and only classified in G06F 3/0412 as an Additional.

Touch position determined by the analysis of the signals provided by pressure/force sensors.

Measuring force or stress in general: G01L 1/00.

Touch position determined by the analysis of the signals provided by a plurality (reduced number) of discrete pressure/force sensors disposed at several points of (e.g. under) the touch sensing surface, e.g. at the corners or the side of a touch sensing plate.

Touch position determined by the analysis of the signals provided by either virtual pressure sensors generated by intersection nodes of a grid of sensing lines interacting with a pressure sensitive medium or an array of discrete pressure/force sensors delivering a variable (not a single Boolean 0/1) signal, the array extending over the whole area of the touch sensing surface, e.g. a grid of sensors disposed under the touch sensing surface.

Digitisers having a grid of crossing wires brought into virtual contact when pressure is exerted on the interaction surface, the virtual contact is established through a pressure sensitive layer disposed between the wire layers and made of a material that resistance diminishes under an applied pressure used to provide a "binary" output. The touch position is determined only by the contacting wires (scanning line and column) and not by the analog value of the sensed signal.

Digitiser control allowing exchange of data with external devices via the digitiser sensing hardware (touch sensing electrodes, touch sensing coils, etc...), including exchange of information with smart pens as long as it concerns data transmission via the touch detection hardware.

Not for transmission of data between devices using only transmission paths other than the touch sensing hardware (e.g. wired or wireless network).

Routing between sensing electrodes and controller or connector, details on wiring and connectors.

For example grouping electrodes for changing the detection speed, resolution or sensitivity (including proximity distance), detection of multiple touches, detection of both pen and finger or, combination of multiple touch technologies.

Synchronisation of the touch detection signals with the display (or backlight) driving signals whenever the digitiser is integrated in the display or not.

Correcting or resolving an ambiguous detected touch, resulting from either

Documents disclosing disambiguation of an interaction with a GUI on a touch screen, wherein the touch location as measured by the digitiser is unambiguous, should be doubly classified in G06F 3/0488 and below.

Optical scanners: G06K 7/10544.

When there is a doubt whether the subject matter belongs to G06F 3/0304 and below or to G06F 3/042 and below, the rule of thumb is: if the moving part is the sensor then it belongs to G06F 3/0304 and below, if the observed target (e.g. finger) is moving then it belongs to G06F 3/042 and below. In any case, the subclasses G06F 3/042 and below are used only in the context of interaction with a surface as defined in G06F 3/041 or in close proximity of this surface; they are not used in the context of a true 3D interactive environment.

Also documents where the acoustic wave is produced by knocking or rubbing the movable member (finger or pen) on the touch surface without any other vibration generator.

Position detection using pens able either to emit acoustic waves using a dedicated wave generator (e.g. piezoelectric or mechanical vibrators, ultrasound generators or sparks) or to sense the propagating waves arriving through the surface.

Passive movable member (finger or pen) disturbing the propagating waves within the substrate.

Digitisers using the capacitive coupling between the edge of a pointing pen or a similar sensing device and touch sensing conductors (electrodes) of the position sensing surface wherein the pen detects changes in electric potential of the conductors generated by the tablet (e.g. tablet driving signals); corresponding to JP FI: G06F 3/044.

Digitisers using the capacitive coupling between the edge of a pointing pen or a similar input device and touch sensing conductors (electrodes) of the position sensing surface wherein active pens generate changes in electric potential of tablets, corresponding to JP FI: G06F 3/044.

Digitisers using a single layer of sensing electrodes, i.e. sense and/or drive electrodes. The electrodes may be interconnected by bridges at crossings. The connecting bridge may be in another layer but all the sensing electrodes are in the same one.

Digitisers using a single layer of sensing electrode which is made of a single piece of conducting material extending on the detection area and covered by a dielectric material.

Digitisers using at least two layers of sensing electrodes, i.e. sense and/or drive electrodes, separated either by a solid dielectric layer or by a gap which could be filled by a dielectric material.

Digitisers comprising a plurality of sets of parallel sensing and/or driving electrodes extending in at least two crossing directions; each "row" or "column" electrode may be either a single piece electrode or a plurality of interconnected electrodes (e.g. via bridges over the electrodes in the crossing direction) making a virtual electrode extending along the given direction.

Digitisers comprising an array of cells, e.g. made by the crossing of "row" and "column" electrodes, which are deformed under the pressure of a touching object, inducing a change in their capacitance.

The electrodes have shapes optimised to obtain a specific effect, e.g. increasing fringe field, better resolution or avoiding moiré effect.

If the electrode design or pattern exhibits an irregular or non-conventional shape without mentioning any specific effect then this symbol should be allocated as additional information.

Digitisers having a grid of crossing wires brought into contact when pressure is exerted on the interaction surface. The contact may be a direct contact or through a pressure sensitive switch making a connection between the wires. It includes arrays of switches integrated in a display where a galvanic contact is established between rows and columns when the user presses the display surface.

When wires or switches are integrated in a display, G06F 3/0412 should also be used.

Subject matter where the focus is on the way the user can interact with the displayed data, usually by means of pointing devices, irrespective of the type of data treated by the software application or the type of device embedding data processing capability.

As to the design of an interaction technique, this is most commonly determined by one or more of three factors, also in combination:

GUIs are widely used to interact with any type of software application, (e.g. operating system, word-processing or information retrieval applications, spreadsheets, etc.), executed on a general-purpose computer or on a specific device (e.g. car navigation system, telephone, photocopy machine).

Documents mentioning or implying the presence of a standard GUI in the context of the disclosure of a specific software application or a specific device capable of processing data related to its specific function, should be in general classified in the appropriate subclasses related to those software applications or specific devices.

Documents describing icons having a specific ( or unconventional ) design or specific properties.

Documents which relate to tabs.

Interaction techniques of e-books when they are heavily book-inspired.

GUI interaction techniques specifically designed for selecting a displayed object, e.g. a window or an icon.

Selection by a pointing device (in the sense of G06F 3/03) such as a mouse, a joystick, a digitiser, etc.

There are some older documents relating to selection by keyboard classified here. However, all new documents related to the latter are now classified in G06F 3/0489.

Every time a set of displayed of objects can be consider as structured as a "list of selectable items", the interaction technique for selecting an item should be classified in G06F 3/0482.

Image manipulation, e.g. dragging or rotation of the whole image, resizing of objects, changing their colour etc.

Documents dealing with panning control.

Drag and drop operations comprise moving by the user a previously selected object, and finally releasing said object.

Virtual keyboards displayed on a touchscreen or as a template on a tablet.

The use of keyboard keys dedicated to specific functions, e.g. <Scroll Lock>, <Home>, <PgUp> keys, as well as the use of specific combinations of keyboard keys, e.g. <Ctrl>+<A>, <Ctrl>+<C>, whereby the "+" means that the two keys have to be pressed together.

Physical and/or logical interfaces between a host or a plurality of hosts and a storage device or a plurality of storage devices or storage system related to data/command path and data placement techniques.

Storage devices include devices with rotating magnetic and optical storage media as well as solid state devices, or non-volatile electronic storage elements.

Interfaces to an emulated rotating storage device in (flash) memory.

Each document should receive regarding "invention information":

The classification of "additional information" is optional. CPC symbols in the range G06F 2206/1004 - G06F 2206/1014 should be used for classifying "additional information".

Facilitating administration like automating recurrent tasks, selecting and presenting management information to the system user or administrator.

Facilitating administration in relation to modification of existing systems, improving compatibility and scalability.

Effects leading to the reduction of the volume of data stored and the storage space requirements e.g. storage efficiency: the ratio of storage system's effective capacity to its raw capacity.

This group is often combined with the technique G06F 3/0641: data de-duplication.

Reducing I/O operation latency time, i.e. the time between the making of an I/O request and the completion of the request's execution.

Increasing I/O operation throughput, i.e. the number of I/O requests satisfied in a given time e.g. expressed in I/O requests/second (IOPS).

Only reliability effects with a technique specific for G06F 3/06 should be classified in this subgroup range.

Increasing the life expectancy measured in e.g. Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

The subject covered by this group is often described in relation to non-volatile semiconductor memory (arrays), which are, as peculiar storage infrastructure, also classified in G06F 3/0679 or G06F 3/0688

Increasing availability, i.e. the amount of time the system is available during those time periods it is expected to be available, measured in e.g. hours of downtime in a year.

Avoiding data to be altered or lost in operation or by accident.

Securing storage systems by preventing unauthorised access to the storage system, e.g. with a password.

Securing storage systems by protecting the data content, e.g. by scrambing the content.

Reducing the power consumption of a storage system, i.e. power efficiency.

Power saving in storage systems with a plurality of storage devices external to the computer.

This group is usually combined with the technique G06F 3/0634 (configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems by changing the state or mode of one or more devices).

This group is usually combined with the infrastructure G06F 3/0689 (disk arrays) or G06F 3/067 (distributed storage).

Reducing the physical size, simplifying the physical integration of storage systems

This group is often combined with G06F 3/0658 (controller construction) in order to characterise the technique for the "invention information", e.g. System On Chip (SOC) controller.

This group is the hierarchical head group for the range G06F 3/0629 - G06F 3/0667 related to particular storage techniques and is not used for classification.

Configuration or reconfiguration aspects.

The general management of storage system features and behaviours through the control of changes made to hardware, software, firmware and related resources throughout the life cycle of the storage system.

Allocating physical and/or logical storage resources, including storage elements, storage devices, appliances, virtual devices, disk volume and file resources.

Virtualisation techniques for the allocation of storage areas such as thin-provisioning are classified in G06F 3/0665.

Changing the operating state or mode or parameters of one or more storage devices e.g. changing the rotational speed (measured in RPM) or powering on/off or spinning up/down one or more storage devices.

This group is often assigned when there is a power saving effect mentioned see G06F 3/0625

Changing the configuration of a storage system by changing the interconnections in between storage system components or changing the routes over which the data flows from the host to the storage device and vice versa e.g. storage switches, storage ports, routing aspects in storage systems.

This group is usually combined with G06F 3/0607: improving administration by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems.

Techniques related to the right of a user or host or group of users or group of hosts to access specific parts of a storage system, e.g. zoning, locking , shared access

This group is usually combined with the effect G06F 3/0622: securing storage system in relation to access

Data organising, formatting or addressing, e.g. compression of data in general in a storage interface.

Mapping aspects: conversion between two address spaces, such as the conversion between physical disk block addresses and logical disk block addresses of virtual disks presented to operating environments by control software, i.e. by using mapping tables which contain the correspondence between the two address spaces being mapped to each other.

Partitioning of storage systems, i.e. the creation of partitions.

Techniques related to the management of blocks in storage systems

Techniques related to data de-duplication, i.e. the replacement of multiple copies of data - at variable levels of granularity - with references to a shared copy in order to save storage space and/or bandwidth.

This group is usually combined with G06F 3/0608: saving storage space

Techniques related to the management of files in storage systems, e.g. low level file system aspects like File Allocation Tables (FAT)

Techniques related to the management of space entities in storage systems, e.g. management of partitions, extents, pools

Aspects of horizontal moving of data between storage devices or systems.

Movement of data or information between information systems, formats, or media. Migration is performed for reasons such as possible decay of storage media, obsolete hardware or software (including obsolete data formats), changing performance requirements (see tiered storage), the need for cost efficiencies etc.

HSM and Tiered storage aspect are usually combined with G06F 3/0685 (hierarchical storage) in order to characterise the infrastructure.

Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) comprising the policies, processes, practices, services and tools used to align the business value of data with the most appropriate and cost-effective storage infrastructure from the point in time when data is created through its final disposition. Data is aligned with business requirements through management policies and service levels associated with performance, availability, recoverability, cost, etc. DLM is a subset of Information Lifecycle Management (ILM).

By automatically moving less frequently accessed objects to lower levels in the hierarchy, higher cost storage is freed for more active objects, and a better overall cost to performance ratio is achieved

Replication is the technique of sharing information so as to ensure consistency between redundant resources, such as software or hardware components, to improve reliability, fault-tolerance, or accessibility.

This group is usually combined with G06F 3/0614 (improving the reliability of storage systems) and subgroups in order to characterise the effect achieved by the replication mechanism.

Erasing of data in storage systems including secure erasure.

This group is often combined with G06F 3/0623 (securing storage systems in relation to content) in order to characterise the effect achieved by the invention

Monitoring aspects related to storage interfaces, i.e. extra functionality for observing properties of a running storage device or storage system in its normal operating conditions without inputting test data.

Arrangements using one or more buffers whereby a buffer is a memory device or programming construct, used to hold data momentarily as it moves along an I/O path or between software components.

Typically, a solid state memory device is used as a buffer. However, any storage device with faster access properties in relation to the storage device it is buffering can be used, e.g. a disk drive can act as a buffer for a tape device.

Constructional details of the storage interface not elsewhere provided for.

Physical connecting arrangements not elsewhere provided for.

Hardware arrangements of storage interface components like processors, bridges, offload engines, state machines

Techniques related to command decoding and execution and command transformation and routing including command buffering, command queuing, command scheduling

Techniques related to the conversion of recording formats, e.g. conversion from Count Key Data (CKD) format from a mainframe to Fixed Block Architecture (FBA) format of an open systems computer.

Techniques related to the conversion of storage protocols; bridging hardware e.g. conversion from Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) protocol to an Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) protocol.

Storage virtualisation refers to:

Devices presented to an operating environment by control software or by a volume manager. From an application standpoint, a virtual device is equivalent to a physical one. In some implementations, virtual devices may differ from physical ones at the operating system level, e.g., booting from a host based disk array may not be possible.

Storage device emulation, e.g. disk emulation.

Storage (sub)system emulation, e. g. Virtual Tape System.

Port virtualisation on a storage network switch, storage interface virtualisation.

Virtual tape: a virtual device with the characteristics of a tape.

Storage area virtualisation, i.e. the act of applying virtualisation to one or more area based (storage) services for the purpose of providing a new aggregated, higher level—e.g., richer, simpler, more secure—storage area service to clients.

Thin provisioning.

Dynamic allocation of logical volumes.

Object virtualisation:

In this subrange, the physical storage infrastructure should be classified and not the virtualised infrastructure if present. If the virtualised storage infrastructure is important, this should be classified in G06F 3/0664.

Architectures comprising multiple storage systems interconnected by a network allowing access from multiple hosts with emphasis on storage related aspects.

Depicted below, an exemplary connection of storage device to a host through a network.

Architectures with a direct host to storage system connection attachment.

Depicted below, an exemplary connection of storage device(s) to a host through a direct connection.

Storage systems comprising a single controller controlling one or more storage media, e.g. drums.

Depicted below, an exemplary architecture for a single storage device.

Storage devices being a spinning disk drive, i.e. a non-volatile, randomly addressable, data storage device.

Storage devices being a magnetic disk drive, e.g. HDD, DASD.

Optical disk drives, e.g. CDROM, DVD, WORM optical disk.

Semiconductor storage devices, e.g. SSD (solid state drive), flash memory, one time programmable memory (OTP).

Storage devices comprising a controller and multiple storage medium types, e.g. magnetic and semiconductor mediums sharing the same controller.

Storage devices being spinning tape devices, i.e. a non-volatile, serial addressable data storage device.

Storage systems comprising multiple controllers and a plurality of storage devices.

Storage systems comprising multiple controllers and multiple storage medium types, e.g. SSD, HDD and tapes combined; FC-HDD, SATA-HDD, SCSI-HDD combined.

Storage systems providing automatic access to multiple media cartridges typically via an automatic loading robot, e.g. tape library, media changer, juke box.

Storage systems comprising multiple controllers and multiple semiconductor storage devices.

Storage systems comprising multiple controllers and multiple spinning disk drives, e.g. RAID, JBOD.

Interfaces between a host or a plurality of hosts and a memory card reader or a plurality of memory card readers in relation to the data/command path and data placement techniques.

Old technology related to interfaces with typewriters.

Not used for classification of new documents.

Interfaces between a host or a plurality of hosts and a printer device or a plurality of printer devices. Techniques for preparing the print job, sending it to a printer and printing it.

This group contains older documents (published before the year 2000) from which the majority are not reorganised in the G06F 3/1201 and its subgroups. No new/recent documents should be classified in G06F 3/1201.

Each new document should receive regarding "invention information":

Class in G06F 3/1278 is added only if the infrastructure plays a major role in the "invention information".